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GameCentral takes a look at the latest mobile releases, including shooter Jydge, puzzle game Goroga, and absurdist adventure Four Last Things.

After the traditional pre-Christmas glut, the early part of the year is a quieter time for new PC and console titles. That’s not the case for mobile games though, where release schedules are as bustling as ever, even if recent offerings seem to be leaning towards higher prices and somewhat less endearing insanity than is often the case on small screens.

Jydge, £4.99 (10tons) for iOS, PC and consoles

As twin stick shooters go, Jydge, whose in-game blanket replacement of ‘U’s with ‘Y’s is never adequately addressed, is definitely on the more subtle end. As well as administering hot leaden justice to criminals, you’ll also need to collect evidence, ‘confiscate’ cash, and rescue civilians; whilst doing your best not to let them get on the business end of stray rounds. With sizeable upgrade trees covering your gun, armour, and special weapons – and levels of polish commensurate with its console roots – Jydge is an entertaining, refined and eventually extremely challenging jaunt through an alternative approach to the legal profession.

Score: 8/10

Gorogoa, £4.99 (Annapurna Interactive) for iOS and PC

Most of the time when games overlap with art, the result is whimsical rather than fun. The delicious multi-layered puzzle you’re presented with in Gorogoa is quite an exception. It tells the wordless story of a boy’s quest to find a fantastic beast, via the usual collector’s set of glowing orbs. This time though, you interact with the game by rearranging four on-screen frames, panning, zooming, and playing with perspective until you wheedle out the solution to each of its mysterious and beautifully drawn scenarios, in a process that’s entirely unique.

Score: 9/10

Let Them Come, £1.99 (Versus Evil) for iOS, Android, PC and consoles

You’re Rock Gunar, sole survivor of your unit and last bulwark against the extraterrestrial onslaught in this Aliens sentry-gun simulator. Illuminated by the flickering muzzle flash of your gun and the explosions generated by grenades, Molotov cocktails, and one highly combustible species of alien, your job is to aim high or low to take out herds of xenomorphs advancing along the floor, walls, and ceiling. It’s all a little bit mindless, but the upgrade path has a satisfying grind to it, and the chiptunes and faux 16-bit pixel art style are a winning combination.

Score: 6/10

Out There Chronicles: Episode 2, £2.99 (Mi-Clos Studio) for iOS, Android, and PC

Set in the same universe as roguelike adventure Out There, but taking place several million years earlier, Out There Chronicles: Episode 2 is an interactive graphic novel that picks up the story of Darius, whose ship has crashed on a desert planet populated by a bunch of religious wingnuts. As in Episode 1, this is essentially an old school text adventure with a few stills drawn by French sci-fi artist Benjamin Carré to spice it up. It’s not very well written, with lots of word repetition and indications that English is not its first language, rendering its space operatics wearyingly tedious.

Score: 3/10

Cinco Paus, £4.99 (Michael Brough) for iOS

If you’ve played other Michael Brough games, like Imbroglio or 868-HACK, the details of Cinco Paus may come as less of a shock to the system. It’s a fabulously complex and deep turn-based strategy game revolving around the use of five magic wands, each of which has complementary powers and limited uses. Discovering how they work and what each system does is left entirely up to you, because the game is only available in Portuguese and does not have English subtitles, making discovering its rules through a series of hard-won Eureka moments, fascinating and daunting in equal measure.

Score: 9/10

Four Last Things, £3.99 (Joe Richardson) for iOS and PC

When the local parish church won’t absolve you of immoral acts committed elsewhere, you need to re-commit each of the seven deadly sins within the bounds of its diocese. So begins this work of delightful absurdity that brings together baroque music, Renaissance painting, and the spirit of Monkey Island; in a point and click adventure that feels like being stuck in an interactive Terry Gilliam animation. Its puzzles are not sophisticated, and the multiple fourth-wall-breaking references and meta-jokes won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but picking your way through cheerfully animated Hieronymus Bosch canvasses never loses its charm.

Score: 6/10

Antihero, £4.99 (Versus Evil) for iOS, Android, and PC

Ported from a PC game, Antihero has you building and running a thieves’ guild in Olde England. Taking turns with a computer or human foe, your job is to earn gold and lanterns, the two currencies you need to upgrade your thievery HQ and recruit new ne’er-do-wells to do your bidding. Splitting your time between scouting new premises, occupying useful buildings, burglary and assassination, you grow your criminal empire whilst craftily side-lining the opposition. The game’s multiple interlocking systems supplying a complex set of tactical options to exploit in your quest for infamy.

Score: 8/10

The Room: Old Sins, £4.99 (Fireproof Games) for iOS

The Room series offers players tactile, faux-Victorian puzzles that involve opening up wood and brass contraptions to reveal crank handles, sculptures with star-shaped bases, and devices that happen to be just the right angle to connect two recently-discovered apertures. Unlike The Room 2, which came over all Myst and had you spending a significant chunk of your time wandering back and forth, this goes back to its roots with a much more compact experience, revolving around the rooms of a single doll’s house. It does nothing to innovate and is relatively short-lived, but it’s enormously engaging while it lasts.